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Jan 2, 2018 at 7:43 PMJan 2, 2018 at 7:47 PM

Harvard University junior and Bruins prospect Ryan Donato was introduced as a member of the 2018 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team on New Year's Day. He'd had to keep his selection secret since before Christmas.

Donato knew before Christmas that he’d been named to the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team. Virtually everyone else in the hockey-following world had to wait for the news until New Year’s Day, when he was introduced as an Olympian during the NHL’s annual Winter Classic at Citi Field in New York.

“The first bit of excitement came when I got the call” from USA Hockey, telling him he’d made the team, said the 21-year-old Scituate native. “But the thing about the call was, I could only tell my mom (Jeannine) and dad (Ted), and my brothers (Jack, Nolan) and sister (Madelyn). They were the only people who knew.

“It had to stay that way for a week and a half, two weeks. It was really hard to keep that secret.”

That anxiety has passed, as well as the tension Donato began to feel when the NHL announced it would not release its players for the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Donato became aware that he was on USA’s watch list.

“I knew I was in the mix for kind of a long time for possibly being selected,” said the Harvard University junior. “It was always running through my mind, for the entire year – but I also wanted to keep my focus on Harvard, and not lose focus on my season.

“So that’s what I did. I just kind of blocked it out, almost to the point where I wasn’t really thinking about it. I just worried about my games every night. I think that benefited my play, and I think my play is one of the reasons I ended up getting selected.”

Donato, an All-ECAC choice and the Ivy League Player of the Year as a sophomore, has picked up his game this season. He leads the Crimson with 12 goals and 20 points through 12 games, and hasn’t been shut out once.

“As it became more apparent what the potential makeup of the (U.S.) lineup could be, it became something Ryan was excited about, and wanted to try to take advantage of,” said Donato’s father Ted, his coach at Harvard and a U.S. Olympian in 1992. “He wanted to get off to a good start. He wanted to put himself in position to be a candidate, and things worked out great.”

While a great disappointment to NHL players and many fans, the league’s decision not to make its players available for Pyeongchang also worked out well for Donato. Selection to future Olympic teams wasn’t out of the question, as he’s a bright pro prospect (the Bruins selected him in the second round of the 2014 NHL Draft), but that was likely to be the most difficult hurdle to recording a family hat trick: Donato’s father played at Harvard (he helped the Crimson win the 1989 NCAA championship), played in the Olympics, and spent most of his 11-year NHL career with the Bruins.

“It’s honestly kind of crazy, how the timing worked,” Ryan Donato said. “The NHL’s not going, and I’m in my junior year at Harvard, probably at about the peak of my career, college-wise. I’m just really blessed, and lucky for the timing.”

Donato is also thankful for the opportunity to play with a different, more mature crowd. He’s one of only four college players on the U.S. roster; the others on the squad are playing professionally in Europe, or in the AHL.

“It’s going to be great to have this experience, to be able to play in an international tournament with such great players,” he said. “It will also prepare me, hopefully, for what’s ahead in the future.”

In the shorter term, Donato will continue to play for Harvard, perhaps into Round 1 of the Beanpot tournament on Feb. 5. (Team USA’s first Olympic outing is Feb. 14, but it will gather before that to practice and play exhibitions.)

And he won’t have to worry about keeping anything secret.

“Now that everyone knows, it’s kind of like another whole experience – all the congratulations, all the people telling me they’ll be cheering for me,” he said. “It’s really relieving, and really exciting.”

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